Saturday, August 22, 2009

Well, it didn't take long for Governor Rick Perry's campaign to go negative.

Texans for Rick Perry has created and posted a website named "washingtonkay.com" in an attempt to portray her as a 'Washington outsider' and rapidly counter Kay's campaign.

We're not sure how long Perry's campaign will keep the negative website around, but for now it seems to indicate Rick's camp was shaken up earlier this week with Kay's allegations of redundant bill signing around the state for political purposes.

The website is http://www.washingtonkay.com and includes altered photos of Senator Hutchison that make her appear goofy. Visitors to the website can download a variety of YouTube videos that seem to have been developed to respond quickly to Kay's camp using the internet. Graphics and PDF documents may also be downloaded that attempt to show differences between the "Washington Kay" and the "Texas Kay".

Here at KVR we believe that Governor Perry is walking a very fine line. First of all, the site is outright negative in content. The site attempts to humorously ridicule a standing U.S. Senator elected by Texans to represent our state in Washington. Its also easy to construe this new website as misogynistic. Texas has a history of strong women leaders in politics. I'm not sure we've ever seen anything like this in recent political history; even with Strayhorn's gubernatorial bid.

We're waiting to see what Kay's campaign will do in response to this website. They will either ignore it to try and stave off attention from the new site or meet it head-on with a site of their own or calling shame on Perry's camp.

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The Candidates Websites

The KVR Poll Tracker

Rasmussen Reports, released on 5/7/2009Hutchison 42%Perry 38%University of Texas, 3/16/09, asked registered likely GOP voters who they'd vote for if the primary were held today...Hutchison 36%Perry 30%